3 Reasons the Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp Jury Verdict Won’t Be Overturned
If the Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp trial was about finding a winner and a loser, then you’d have to say Depp won while Heard lost the verdict. Though Heard has to pay Depp $10.35 million instead of $15 million in damages, which is a small win for the Aquaman actor, a jury ultimately sided with Depp. Now, Heard wants the verdict in her trial against Depp overturned, but there are three reasons it’s unlikely to happen.
A jury decided the verdict in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial
The Depp vs. Heard verdict happened pretty quickly once the jury deliberated. The seven-member group believed that Depp’s legal team answered the questions necessary to prove defamation against the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
Heard’s 2018 op-ed stated she was a public face of domestic abuse. Though not named, Depp felt the piece implied he was the abuser. He possibly lost out on millions of dollars when Disney dropped him from the sixth Pirates movie after the op-ed, and he sued Heard for defamation and sought $50 million in damages.
We know the jury awarded Depp $15 million. The judge reduced it to $10.35 million because of Virginia law, but Heard wants the verdict to be dismissed. She and her lawyers claim it was not supported by the evidence and that one juror was not properly vetted, as CBS reports.
However, it seems Heard might not have the verdict overturned.
Three reasons Heard won’t have the verdict in her trial against Depp thrown out
Heard and her legal team planned to take some sort of post-trial action all along, and now we know what it is. The Three Days to Kill star wants the judge to throw out the verdict against her, but that’s unlikely to happen.
- Heard’s lawyers motioned for the case to be dismissed before the trial began, as the Los Angeles Times reported, but the judge denied the request. It seems unlikely to happen now.
- One section of the Virginia Commonwealth Code states a judge will not instruct a jury in any way that might influence a verdict based on the evidence. Heard’s motion to toss the case before the trial failed. The judge felt the evidence presented by both sides was fit for the jury to hear from the start.
- A jury is a statement from a community of peers. That group spent weeks going through the selection process, hearing evidence on both sides, and reaching a verdict. A judge isn’t likely to rush to dismiss that decision on a whim. Heard’s legal team will have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the trial evidence was insufficient and one juror not vetted properly.
The verdict in the Heard vs. Depp trial didn’t go her way, and if she’s serious about appealing, it seems a dismissal won’t go her way, either.
Depp’s next movie; is Heard blacklisted in Hollywood?
Depp’s first movie after the trial is the planned French film Jeanne du Barry, which sees him star as King Louis XV, according to his IMDb profile. It tells the story of a peasant who rises to become a mistress of the French king.
The movie also stars Maïwenn (the Diva in The Fifth Element) in the title role, Louis Garrel, Pierre Richard, and Noémie Lvovsky. Maïwenn directs, and Why Not Productions is financing. The small cast and sparse information aren’t accidents. The movie is still in pre-production with no release date in sight, but Why Not is still trying to get it made.
Meanwhile, any rumors of Heard being canceled seem to be just that — rumors. An executive at DC films said she was almost recast in Aquaman 2 because of the trial, but her IMDb page lists the 2023 film among her movies. In the Fire, which finished filming before the 2022 trial, is another upcoming Heard project. Heard has no other projects on the horizon, per IMDb, but her former manager predicts she’ll focus on original projects as she takes her career in a new direction, per The Mirror.
